Claim of Confession Probed In Kendrick Johnson Death

CNN reports that a Lowndes County, Georgia, assistant district attorney has ordered a communications company to hand over internet records. Investigators received an anonymous email claiming an ex-schoolmate reportedly confessed to killing Kendrick Johnson.

Kendrick Johnson

Chief Assistant District Attorney Bradfield Shealy issued the subpoena to Mediacom Communications Corporation on January 28. They were ordered to provide the Lowndes County grand jury with subscriber information associated with the e-mail sent through the Lowndes County sheriff’s office’s website or submit the documents to the district attorney’s office or Lt. Jones before February 26.

Through a state Open Records Act, CNN now has the email and the subpoena from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.

The anonymous email is dated January 27th. The sender does not suggest that he or she witnessed the confession. Rather, the sender claims to have been given that information by someone who purportedly is aware of the confession by one person implicated in the email.

It appears that four persons are implicated in the anonymous email. The sheriff’s office provided CNN with an incident report that reveals that on January 28th, investigators interviewed two of the four students. Both acknowledged they knew the 17-year-old Johnson but denied any involvement in his death.

Lowndes County sheriff’s investigators concluded that Kendrick died after being stuck in a gym-mat while reaching for a shoe and that his death was accidental. The state’s medical examiner cited “positional asphyxia” as the cause of death.

Kendrick’s parents, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson had his body exhumed and an independent autopsy conducted. The independent pathologist, hired by Johnson’s parents concluded that Kendrick died from the result of a homicide, after finding evidence of “unexplained apparent non-accidental blunt force trauma” to Kendrick’s neck.

Michael Moore, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia launched a federal probe in October 2013. The federal grand jury held a hearing in the probe last week, and students from Lowndes High School and Valdosta High School were among those who appeared.

One thing for sure is that if the email makes false claims, the individual who sent it will be in a heck of a lot of legal trouble. Among charges might be interference with a federal investigation. No one should play games with the big boys.

Yes, they certainly do. While it won’t bring him back, they need to know. These things don’t “just happen.” This was no tragic accident. Oh, it was tragic all right, but no accident. A beautiful young man cannot die this way and just have it left like that.

According to a Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office incident report, the subpoena was faxed to Mediacom on February 7. The company intends to comply with the order. However, a Mediacom employee told CNN by phone Wednesday that Mediacom has not received the subpoena.

Why hasn’t Mediacom received the supoena? What happened to it?

Last week, students from Lowndes High School and nearby Valdosta High School were among those who appeared before a federal grand jury in Macon, as part of the Department of Justice’s investigation into Johnson’s death.

So, are the chances strong that the students who appeared before the federal grand jury are the same ones referred to in the CNN article?

Yahtzee,
CNN may not have spoken to anyone in Mediacom’s legal department.

I don’t know Georgia’s rules for service of subpoena. In Illinois, they must be served in person or by certified mail. The subpoenaed entity might agree to receive it via fax or email, but it still has to be served in person or by certified mail.

The failure to serve a subpoena correctly does not prevent curing the fault and re-serving.

At least now Medicom knows that a subpoena was served, or attempted to be served.

It’s so nice that TWO ARTICLES IN A ROW are your own!! Your blog is so much clearer and more pleasant when you post your own articles, as opposed to cross-posting (or whatever you call it) from other blogs.

You obviously worked hard at setting up and laying out your blog in an orderly manner that allowed readers to easily skim through and find topics and articles of interest. But your recent cross-postings of others’ articles negates all your hard work. They degrade your blog when you incorporate their loud (even obnoxiously screaming) fonts and excessive or imposing graphics ahead of any content, etc.

That is NOT to say that all your cross-postings are trash (even though their presentation might look trashy). Some have been very valuable.

I’d just suggest that whatever content you paste into your own blog be converted to your more dignified and informative style, while also including a link to the external site for those who want to read more and/or experience the particular flavor of the original posting site.

Just an observation – which I hope you hear in the helpful spirit in which it’s offered.

It’s so nice that TWO ARTICLES IN A ROW are your own!! Your blog is so much clearer and more pleasant when you post your own articles, as opposed to cross-posting (or whatever you call it) from other blogs.

What you are referring to is called reblogging. Word Press has this neat little button for blog administrators. When we read an article written on another blog and we want to present it to our readers, we click it and it reblogs on our blog.

When I see that another blog has already written on a matter of interest, I reblog. It makes no sense in re-inventing the wheel, so to speak.

Some blogs write things that I could never write, such as Coach Muller’s sense of humor. (Love him!)

For sake of copyright or giving attribution credit, the re-blog feature does not allow for changing anything in the original. The only thing that blog administrators are allowed to do on reblogs is add their own comment(s). What shows on the Admin side for a re-blog is a blank post; hence, I can’t convert anything on a reblog.

Reblogging also has another value. It introduces readers to other blogs, some in which they may take interest and follow.

That is the Word Press Community in operation.

There are a few blog administrators who do not associate with other blogs by following, commenting, nor reblogging. Some have even disabled their reblog feature. They don’t know what they’re missing.

I appreciate you sharing your observation. Maybe you can do me a favor so I can see what you see??? The next time I reblog something that you think degrades the quality of this blog, please post a comment letting me know why. Deal?

Xena – Yes, we’ve got a deal on that. And THANK YOU for taking it in the spirit it was offered and for your really helpful explanation. I think this part addresses what I’ve found unappealing about the reblogging:

For sake of copyright or giving attribution credit, the re-blog feature does not allow for changing anything in the original. The only thing that blog administrators are allowed to do on reblogs is add their own comment(s).

That must be why we’re stuck with huge fonts and photos that are … um … well … let’s say … more “visually assertive” than suits my own personal tastes. (OK … “in your face” is what my blunt nature wants to blurt out.)

And then there was the “million-photo-multi-media” re-blog on March 10th – where I couldn’t tell who or what started where (it might have been a re-blog in a re-blog?). Your title, I think, was “Stand Your Ground March & Rally In Tallahassee, Florida, March 10th, 2014.” I had to scroll down forever to find your preceding posts (not sure I ever found them).

I usually skim through your headlines every few days and read all or some articles – and not necessarily in any particular order – depending on my interests and time budget. Before you started posting frequent re-blogs, it was easy to do that. But, lately … not so much.

But i reckon I can live with it. Maybe if you toned down the fonts for your own comments on a re-blog, it would help figure out where the real headlines and content are. And maybe some of the other blog admins can learn a bit from your style, too — e.g., hint, hint to Obamacrat: Based on your blog name, I’d bet I’m 100% with your thoughts and interests, but your blog page makes me so dizzy that I avoid following your links!

And maybe it’s just me…. I read, write, and edit all day for a living, so: (1) I have definite opinions about presenting written material; and, (2) my eyes are usually pretty darned strained and tired before i even START my “fun” reading!

groans,
Word press does not allow for any altering of re-blogs, period. When the original blog/poster makes changes, those changes appear where the post has been reblogged.

I hope that you only found two re-blogs that you found — well — what’s the word — inconvenient?

The re-blog on the Stand Your Ground rally was added to by the original source as photos became available — so it grew. I cannot put a “more” into it.

If you don’t want to scroll down the homepage to the next article, on the right-side border is a list of new posts. IIRC, it provides for the 15 most recent articles.

However, if you’re accessing through Word Press Reader, you won’t see the border of the blog. From time to time, I go through Word Press Reader to catch-up on blogs I follow, and when the “more” isn’t used, it can make for a long read or scroll. That comes with the territory.

The Word Press Community consists of bloggers who have many varying interests. I re-blog subjects that are interest to followers. Word Press allows and encourages re-blogging. It’s not going away.

You’re correct — the Word Press reblog program does not allow for any changes to the original.

There are bloggers who express themselves on subjects much better than I could hope to. Those stories that bring joy to our heart; that spread love; that gives us examples of kindness, scream out at me to share. Or, as we used to say, they “call my name.” 🙂

There are bloggers who express themselves on subjects much better than I could hope to. Those stories that bring joy to our heart; that spread love; that gives us examples of kindness, scream out at me to share. Or, as we used to say, they “call my name.”

It’s just a bummer about the re-blogging limitations. To me, presentation style is as important as content – because, for example, if a style is too overwhelming, the content can get lost entirely rather than being absorbed by a reader.

I realize that you are an editor by profession which is super. You must be making a great contribution.

Actually, as far as blogging, I think it is wonderful that WordPress honors the individuality and graphic layout style of bloggers.

Sometimes, when I see overly large print (as that one entitled “This Kid Rocks”), I consider the possibility that the blogger might have poor eyesight. My mom had macular degeneration and needed huge print to be able to read. She did find some large-print books that she was able to read for awhile, but then she started using audio tapes to “read” books.

I hope the DOJ sees through GZ’s fake “choirboy” modus operandi. (GZ saying “fucking coons” on the NEN tape is such a give-away…especially because “coons” does not rhyme with GZ’s assertion that he said “punks.”)

I think GZ has spent a lifetime playing an extreme version of Eddie Haskell.

Eddie Haskell: “Wally, if your dumb brother tags along, I’m gonna – oh, good afternoon, Mrs. Cleaver. I was just telling Wallace how pleasant it would be for Theodore to accompany us to the movies.”

………………………

Wally: “Hey, Mom!
June Cleaver: “Yes, Wally?”
Wally: “Could Eddie spend the night here?”
June Cleaver: “Not while your father’s away.”
Eddie Haskell (dejected) “Boy. Everybody around here is wise to me. I might just have to move to a new town and start all over.”

………………..

Wally: “Listen, Beav. At this point, I don’t think you want to be taking advice from Eddie.”

Eddie: “Are you kidding? I’ve been in an out of every kind of trouble there is in school.”

Shannon – Great news! Thank you for sharing! I’d long since given up hope on any federal charges (shame on me).

But, you know, if half or more of our states insist on legalizing (indeed, promoting) irresponsible and/or vigilante killings, and state prosecutors and courts are too ignorant and/or incompetent to recognize – let alone ensure or achieve – just results for ALL their citizens, then the feds absolutely NEED to apply federal civil rights laws in cases like this!

If somebody did send this in it wasnt no false statement. If the person sent it in and was lying consequences need to be forced. But I think it is somebody that knows something but is scared to speak out. There was people who bragged about killing KJ and now its revealed..

Shannon,
The email was from someone saying they heard from someone else. When there is an investigation, people should be careful of intentionally sending false reports to authorities. It can land them in jail. Whomever it was has no compassion for Kendrick’s parents and no respect for the deceased. Someone like that must have a very sad life and needs attention.